EUROPEAN ORGANISATION FOR THE SAFETY OF AIR NAVIGATION EUROCONTROL ASTERIX Part 5 Category 017 Appendix A Coordinate Transformation Algorithms for the Hand-Over of Targets Between POEMS Interrogators Edition Edition Date Status Class : : : : 1.0 June 2005 Released Issue General Public EUROPEAN AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME DOCUMENT IDENTIFICATION SHEET DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Document Title Coordinate Transformation Algorithms for the Hand-Over of Targets Between POEMS Interrogators EWP DELIVERABLE REFERENCE NUMBER PROGRAMME REFERENCE INDEX EDITION : 1.0 EDITION DATE : June 2005 Abstract Keywords CONTACT PERSON : A. Engel TEL : 93355 DIVISION : DAS/CSM DOCUMENT STATUS AND TYPE STATUS Working Draft Draft Proposed Issue Released Issue ; CATEGORY Executive Task Specialist Task Lower Layer Task ; CLASSIFICATION General Public EATCHIP Restricted ; ELECTRONIC BACKUP INTERNAL REFERENCE NAME : HOST SYSTEM MEDIA Microsoft Windows Type : Hard disk Media Identification : Edition : 1.1 Released Issue SOFTWARE(S) Page ii Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation DOCUMENT APPROVAL The following table identifies all management authorities who have successively approved the present issue of this document. AUTHORITY NAME AND SIGNATURE DATE ASTERIX Manager D. Doukas SUR Domain Manager J. Berends SURT Chairman M. Rees EATM/DAS Director Edition : 1.0 B. Redeborn Released Issue Page iii Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation DOCUMENT CHANGE RECORD The following table records the complete history of the successive editions of the present document. EDITION DATE 1.0 June 2005 Page iv REASON FOR CHANGE Migration to EATMP Document Layout Released Issue SECTIONS PAGES AFFECTED All Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation TABLE OF CONTENTS DOCUMENT IDENTIFICATION SHEET ................................................................................. ii DOCUMENT APPROVAL ...................................................................................................... iii DOCUMENT CHANGE RECORD .......................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................... v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION 8 1.1 General 8 1.2 Contents 8 1.3 Geometric Constants of the WGS 84 Ellipsoid 8 2. RADAR LOCAL CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM 9 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2 Radar measurements 9 2.3 Local polar co-ordinates 9 2.4 Conversion from Local Polar Spherical Co-ordinates to Local Cartesian Co-ordinates (and viceversa) 12 3. GEOCENTRIC CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM 3.1 Introduction 13 13 3.2 Conversion from Local Cartesian Co-ordinates to Geocentric Cartesian Co-ordinates (and viceversa) 13 4. GEODESIC CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM 4.1 Transformation from Geocentric to Geodesic Co-ordinates 16 4.2 Transformation Geodesic to Geocentric Co-ordinates 18 Edition : 1.0 Released Issue 16 Page v Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 5. SPEED VECTOR 18 6. SUMMARY OF FORMULAS 19 6.1 Formulas needed for the sending radar station 19 6.2 Formulas needed for the receiving station 20 Page vi Released Issue Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Edition : 1.0 Released Issue Page 7 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.1.1 General This document has been extracted from a set of documents produced by Smith System Engineering Limited (Smith) for EUROCONTROL, under contract C/1.120/HQ/MM/96. 1.2 1.2.1 1.3 1.3.1 Contents The remainder of this document is structured as follows: - section 2 specifies the local co-ordinate system used to measure the aircraft position in the POEMS system; - section 3 specifies and transformation method; - section 4 specifies the transformation to / from geodesic co-ordinates; - section 5 specifies the transformation of the speed vector. the alternative absolute co-ordinate Geometric Constants of the WGS 84 Ellipsoid The radar antenna positions and aircraft positions exchanged between mode-S stations shall be specified in terms of geodetic longitude and latitude, and altitude relative to the WGS 84 ellipsoid using the following constants. Name Page 8 analyses Notation Value Semi-major axis a 6378137.000 m Semi-minor axis b 6356752.314 m First eccentricity e 0.0818191908426 (First eccentricity)2 e2 0.00669437999013 Released Issue Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 2. RADAR LOCAL CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM 2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 The measurements made by one radar system are in terms of quantities local to that radar. This section specifies how these shall be used to obtain the aircraft positions in terms of local co-ordinates. 2.1.2 Section 2.2 describes the measurements made by the radar system. The specification of the transformation algorithm required is between local polar co-ordinate systems, and hence the conversion to these is considered first in section 2.3. In the consideration of transformation algorithms an intermediate conversion to local cartesian co-ordinates has been found to be useful, and this is discussed in section 2.3. 2.1.3 The overall problem is conversion between two such local co-ordinate systems referred with respect to origins at different radar systems. The general approach to be adopted is transformation to some absolute reference co-ordinate system that is independent of the radar position, and then from this absolute system to the new local system. 2.2 Radar measurements 2.2.1 The POEMS system allows the collection of surveillance data that includes both the position and velocity of aircraft. 2.2.2 The position measurements made by the radar system for a given aircraft are ρ, the slant range (line-of-sight distance) to the aircraft, θ, the azimuthal bearing of the aircraft (where approximately due north of the radar is a bearing of 0°), and H, the altitude of the aircraft above the ground. Note that the first two are measured by the radar itself, while the third quantity is returned by a transponder on the aircraft. The measurement of H is made using a pressure altimeter. 2.3 Local polar co-ordinates 2.3.1 The description of the aircraft position in terms of (ρ, θ, H) is a mathematically unconventional co-ordinate system, which cannot be easily manipulated. It is therefore helpful to convert to a more convenient system, that of spherical polar co-ordinates measured relative to the radar system. 2.3.2 The spherical co-ordinate origin is taken to be the radar location, the polar axis is the normal vertically upwards from the Earth, and the azimuthal zero is a tangent line on the Earth pointing in the same direction as the zero for measurement of the bearing angle, as described above. This system is referred to as the “local polar co-ordinate system”. Edition : 1.0 Released Issue Page 9 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation Page 10 Figure 2-1 Radar measurements of altitude and elevation angle Figure 2-2 Radar bearing measurement Released Issue Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 2.3.3 In this co-ordinate system the distance from the sphere centre and the azimuthal angle are already specified by ρ and θ respectively. It only remains to calculate the polar elevation angle ψ. It should be noted that for compatibility with the notation and routines used in reference 1, this angle is measured from the azimuthal plane rather than the polar axis. 2.3.4 The relationship of ρ, θ, H and ψ is illustrated in Figures 2-1 and 2-2. 2.3.5 The radius of the Earth, R, at a given geodetic latitude L is R= a (1 − e 2 ) (1 − e 2 sin 2 L) 3 2-1 where a is the semi-major axis of the Earth ellipsoid and e is its eccentricity. 2.3.6 It is generally assumed that R is the same below the aircraft position as at the radar antenna position. Making this assumption and applying the cosine rule to the triangle in Figure 2-1 gives the equation: 2 ρ( R1 + h1 )sin ψ = ( H + R1 ) 2 − ( h1 + R1 ) 2 − ρ 2 2-2 which can be rearranged to give an expression for ψ. (Symbols are as defined in figures 2-1 and 2-2). 2 R1 ( H − h1 ) + H 2 − h12 − ρ 2 sin ψ = 2 ρ( R1 + h1 ) 2.3.7 In practice the Earth is actually ellipsoid rather than spherical in shape, bulging slightly at the equator. Therefore the assumption above introduces an error which can be approximated as follows. The radius of the Earth changes by about 1 in 300 from the pole to the equator, i.e. a change of about 20km over a north-south separation of about 5000km. A radar system is assumed to detect aircraft over a range of about 500km, and hence over this range the Earth’s radius may change by up to 2km. Therefore the error in the calculated elevation angle is: ∆ψ ≈ tan −1 2.3.8 2-3 2 = 0.2 o 500 2-4 This can be considered to be a systematic feature of representing aircraft positions in the local polar co-ordinate system - it assumes an Earth of constant radius, equal to that at the position of the radar. Edition : 1.0 Released Issue Page 11 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 2.4 Conversion from Local Polar Spherical Co-ordinates to Local Cartesian Co-ordinates (and vice-versa) 2.4.1 Standard mathematical formulae can be used to convert from spherical polar coordinates to cartesian co-ordinates relative to the same position. 2.4.2 In accordance with usual convention, the polar axis is taken as z-axis. However, the due north direction is taken as the y-axis (rather than the conventional choice of the xaxis). 2.4.3 It is understood that the azimuthal measurements from a given radar may not be measured exactly with respect to the North pole. The deviation of the zero azimuth direction from North can be denoted as Θ, and used as a correction when making the conversion to local cartesian co-ordinates, which have been defined with respect to the exact North direction. 2.4.3 This gives the transformation equations as x = ρ cos ψ sin(θ + Θ ) y = ρ cos ψ cos(θ + Θ ) z = ρ sin ψ 2.4.4 2-5 This transformation can be inverted using the following equations: ρ = x2 + y2 + z2 x y θ = tan −1 − Θ 2-6 z ψ = sin −1 ρ 2.4.5 This (x,y,z) co-ordinate system is referred to as the “local cartesian co-ordinates” 2.4.6 The conversions between local polar and local cartesian co-ordinates are exact. Page 12 Released Issue Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 3. GEOCENTRIC CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 In this method the absolute reference co-ordinate system is a cartesian grid whose origin is the centre of the earth. This is referred to as a “geocentric cartesian coordinate system.” 3.1.2 The conversion between local polar and local cartesian co-ordinates was described in section 2 above. 3.1.3 The conversion between local cartesian and geocentric cartesian co-ordinates is described in section 3.2 below. 3.2 Conversion from Local Cartesian Co-ordinates to Geocentric Cartesian Co-ordinates (and vice-versa) 3.2.1 The reference co-ordinate set used is the geocentric co-ordinate system, where the co-ordinate origin is the centre of the earth, the z-axis points towards the North pole the x-axis points towards the zero of longitude in the equatorial plane and the y-axis points towards longitude of 90°E in the equatorial plane. This is illustrated in Figure 31. Figure 3-1 3.2.2 Geocentric cartesian axes The local cartesian co-ordinate set has the z-axis as the normal to the Earth’s surface, the y-axis as a tangent pointing due north, and the x-axis forming the correct right handed set. These axes are illustrated in Figure 3-2. Edition : 1.0 Released Issue Page 13 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation Figure 3-2 Local cartesian axes 3.2.3 The direction vectors of the local cartesian direction axes for radar system 1, X1, Y1, and Z1, can be written in the geocentric cartesian system. 3.2.4 The position of radar system 1 is specified in terms of a latitude, L1, longitude, G1, and altitude, h1 (geodetic co-ordinates). 3.2.5 The normal to the Earth’s surface at a given latitude and longitude is then ZˆS = (cos L1 cos G1 , cos L1 sinG1 , sinL1 ) 3-1 and a tangent pointing towards the north is YˆS = (− sin L1 cosG1 , − sin L1 sin G1 , cos L1 ) 3-2 Application of the vector cross product gives: Xˆ S = (− sinG1 , cosG1 , 0) 3-3 (The notation used is that X$ is a unit vector pointing in the direction in which the coordinate X is being measured) 3.2.6 The position of the radar system is also the co-ordinate origin for the local co-ordinate system, and is given by: (η + h ) cos L1 cos G1 1 1 T1 = ( η1 + h1 ) cos L1 sinG1 2 (η 1 (1− e ) + h1 )sin L1 Page 14 Released Issue 3-4 Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation where a η1 = 3-5 1 − e 2 sin 2 L1 a being the semi-major axis of the Earth ellipsoid and e its eccentricity. 3.2.7 The conversion from the local cartesian system to geocentric cartesian system is therefore a translation of the origin by T1, and a rotation of the axes from those in equations 3-1 to 3-3 to the geocentric axes Xˆ G = (1, 0, 0) Yˆ = (0, 1, 0) G 3.2.8 ZˆG = (0, 0, 1) 3-6 X X G 1 T YG = S1 Y 1 +T1 ZG Z1 3-7 Therefore: where − sinG1 S1 = − sin L1 cosG1 cos L1 cos G1 3.2.9 cos G1 − sin L1 sin G1 cos L1 sinG1 0 cos L1 sin L1 Note that the matrix S1 is orthogonal, and hence: S1S1T = I 3.2.10 3-8 3-9 Manipulating equation 3-7 gives the reverse transformation: X X G 1 Y1 = S1 Y G − T1 ZG Z1 3-10 3.2.11 It is important to note that all the transformations discussed in this section are in principle exact. 3.2.12 Therefore the only errors which can arise are from errors in the data put into the transformation, i.e. the data on radar positions and the aircraft position. Edition : 1.0 Released Issue Page 15 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 4. GEODESIC CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM 4.1 Transformation from Geocentric to Geodesic Co-ordinates 4.1.1 The altitude of the aircraft is already known, from the on-board measurement of H. However, the latitude and longitude must be calculated from the geocentric coordinates. 4.1.2 The longitude calculation is straightforward, as this is simply the azimuthal angle in the geocentric X-Y plane: tan G = 4.1.3 4-1 The latitude calculation is most easily calculated via the polar angle φ: tan φ = 4.1.4 YG . XG ZG X G 2 + YG 2 . 4-2 It is important to note that geodetic latitude, L, is measured as the angle made by a normal to the surface with the equatorial plane. For an ellipsoid this will differ from the angle, φ, made with a line joining the point to the centre of the Earth. φ L Figure 4-1 Polar angle (φ) and geodetic latitude (L) Page 16 Released Issue Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation For a point on the Earth’s surface the two angles are related by: tan φ = (1 − e 2 ) tan L or tan L = 1 tan φ (1 − e 2 ) 4-3 For a point above the earth surface the following formula is valid; tan L = 1+ H / η tan φ (1 − e 2 ) + H / η 4-4 where e is the eccentricity of the reference Earth ellipsoid, b2 e = 1− 2 , a 2 4-5 where b is the semi-minor axis length and a the semi-major axis length of the ellipsoid. 4.1.5 Using equation 4-3, given that the calculated quantity is the latitude of the point on the ground directly below the aircraft, the aircraft’s latitude can then be calculated as: tan L = 4.1.6 1+ H / η (1 − e 2 ) + H / η ZG X G 2 + YG 2 . 4-6 The value of the normalised earth radius at the aircraft latitude η can only be determined accurately once the latitude is known (see formula 4-7). The next table investigates the maximum error in case of an approximated normalised earth radius. normalised earth radius 6378 km 6400 km Altitude (H) 15 km η for latitude 0 and 90 1+ H / η (1 − e 2 ) + H / η 15 km Difference = 1,00672357744 1,00672363204 -0,0000000546 η shall be approximated by using the normalised earth radius at the radar position, the resulting error will be smaller than 6.10-8. Note that the error will be less than 1 meter. Therefore in equation 4-6 the normalised earth radius at the aircraft latitude can be approximated by : Edition : 1.0 Released Issue Page 17 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation η= a 1 − e 2 sin 2 L1 where L1 is the latitude of the radar. 4.2 Transformation Geodesic to Geocentric Co-ordinates 4.2.1 In this system the aircraft position is specified in terms of geodetic latitude, L, longitude, G, and altitude, H. 4.2.2 Using normal projection, ie continuing lines of constant latitude normal to the Earth’s surface, these can be converted to geocentric cartesian coordinates using the equations below: XG YG ZG = (η + H ) cos L cos G = (η + H ) cos L sin G = (η (1 − e 2 ) + H ) sin L 4-7 where: η= 5. a 1 − e 2 sin 2 L 4-8 SPEED VECTOR 5.1. The speed vector is calculated by the tracking filters and are expressed as Vx and Vy based on the local Cartesian co-ordinate system used by the tracker. The error in Vx and Vy strongly depends on sophistication of the applied filtering. 5.2. The 2D speed in polar co-ordinates as defined in the ASTERIX format can be used in combination with positions based on local Cartesian or geodesic co-ordinates. 5.3. If the local tracking is performed in the co-ordinate system specified in section 2, than the polar speed vector (H = Heading with respect to geographical north at the aircraft position, Hr = Heading with respect to geographical north of the radar and S = Ground Speed) shall be calculated as follows. tan Hr = Vx / Vy 5-1 H = Cf x Hr 5-2 S = V x2 + V y2 Page 18 Released Issue 5-3 Edition : 1.0 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation 5.4 The correction factor Cf is needed to correct the heading for the difference in geographical north between radar and aircraft position. Cf depends on the latitude of the aircraft and difference in longitude between radar and aircraft. Cf could be stored in a table. 6. SUMMARY OF FORMULAS 6.1 Formulas needed for the sending radar station Transform the local polar co-ordinates (ρ, θ, H) from the aircraft to local spherical coordinates (ρ, θ, ψ). R1 and h1 represents the earth radius at the radar position and the height of the radar. sin ψ = 2 R1 ( H − h1 ) + H 2 − h12 − ρ 2 2 ρ( R1 + h1 ) 2-3 where the earth radius R1 is calculated once using formula 2-1. Transform the local spherical co-ordinates (ρ, θ, ψ) to local Cartesian co-ordinates (Xl, Yl, Zl). Θ represents the error in the alignment to the geographical north of the radar. X l = ρ cosψ sin(θ + Θ) Yl = ρ cosψ cos(θ + Θ) 2-5 Z l = ρ sin ψ Transform the local Cartesian co-ordinates (Xl, Yl, Zl) to geocentric Cartesian coordinates (XG, YG, ZG); XG X1 T YG = S1 Y 1 + T1 Z Z G 1 3-7 where the matrices depend on the radar position and are calculated once using formulas 3-4, 3-8 and 3-9. Transform the geocentric Cartesian co-ordinates (XG, YG, ZG) to lattitude and longitude (L, G), the altitude of the aircraft (H) is already known from the beginning; tan G = Edition : 1.0 YG . XG Released Issue 4-1 Page 19 Cat. 017, Appendix A: Coordinate Transformation tan L = 1+ H / η (1 − e 2 ) + H / η ZG X G 2 + YG 2 . 4-6 where η is calculated once with formula below using the lattitude of the radar : η= 6.2 a 1 − e 2 sin 2 L1 Formulas needed for the receiving station Transform to latitude and longitude (L, G) and the altitude of the aircraft (H) to the geocentric Cartesian co-ordinates (XG, YG, ZG); XG = (η + H ) cos L cos G YG = (η + H ) cos L sin G ZG = (η (1 − e ) + H ) sin L 4-7 2 where η depends on the latitude of the aircraft: η= a 1 − e 2 sin 2 L 4-8 Transform the geocentric Cartesian co-ordinates (XG, YG, ZG) to local Cartesian coordinates (Xl, Yl, Zl)); X X G 1 Y1 = S1 Y G − T1 ZG Z1 3-10 where the matrices depend on the radar position and are calculated once using formulas 3-4, 3-8 and 3-9. Transform the local Cartesian co-ordinates (x, y, z) to local polar co-ordinates (ρ, θ, Η). H is already available and Θ represents the error in the alignment to the geographical north of the radar. ρ = x2 + y2 + z2 x y θ = tan −1 − Θ Page 20 Released Issue 2-6 Edition : 1.0